Brexit-related projects advertising spending

Susan Hall: How much has been spent to date on advertising for Brexit-related projects? Please give a breakdown by project or campaign.

The Mayor: Brexit is having and will continue to have a huge impact on our great city. Our city is home to more than 1 million EU Londoners and ensuring they can access expert legal guidance and services to apply for settled status is vital. We know from research that they are feeling particularly uncertain about their future in the city, particularly given the Government’s issues around the settled status scheme and the availability of easy to access advice. Without this crucial information, signposting and outreach we risk many thousands of Londoners being left without settled status post-Brexit. It is also essential we do everything we can to support the businesses that are the lifeblood of our economy to prepare for the changes and uncertainty Brexit will create.
To date the GLA has spent £107,753 on providing critical information related to Brexit to Londoners and our city’s businesses. This is nearly ten times less than the Government’s £100m budget for their Get Ready for Brexit campaign, which launched in September 2019.
This includes:
Promoting the EU Londoners Hub to ensure the over 1 million European citizens who have made this city their home apply for settled status. This hub provides free translated guidance, signposting EU Londoners to further support services across London if needed.
Promoting the new Brexit Business Resource Hub. I worked with London Growth Hub to launch a Brexit Business Resource Hub to support businesses through the economic impacts of Brexit and provide a central point of guidance which shares information on how they can best prepare. I also launched a series of workshops and advice clinics for businesses between 2019-2020, and supported businesses with guidance for their EU employees.